


Precipitous

by Neem



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mutilation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 20:26:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21434206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neem/pseuds/Neem
Summary: Charon had no feelings about death. After living in Ahzrukhal's shadow for years and serving as his guard dog, he lost touch with his last trace of humanity. But with his former employer dead and Charon now roaming the Wastes with a woman named Beth, he comes face-to-face with grief and realizes if he doesn't say something, he'll never say anything at all.
Relationships: Charon (Fallout)/Female Lone Wanderer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	Precipitous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AllMadeofGlass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllMadeofGlass/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Better Version of Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14595873) by [AllMadeofGlass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllMadeofGlass/pseuds/AllMadeofGlass). 

> Welcome! This work was inspired by the "No Man Is An Island" series by AllMadeofGlass, so if you haven't read Better Version Of Me, go check it out! I love her series and wanted to expand on it with a scenario I couldn't get out of my head, so enjoy!  
Great thanks to my girlfriend and mother for reading this over for me!

_Fuzzy feeling and I miss you_   
  
_Why can nothing stay the same?_   
  
Cavetown

The smog thickened this afternoon, so much Charon couldn’t see the buildings up the footpath. 

It’d been a while since they took a break in Megaton. He got used to settling in the first damp and dirty mattress they found out there, likely killing the raiders who owned it first. Beth would say walking back home was a hassle. He didn’t say, but Charon knew she hated it here

He carried noodles in one hand and a bowl of rat in the other. His knee locked halfway up and Charon stopped to lessen the pain. There was too much walking here, and their latest trip to Minefield for Moira Brown showed the full extent of Beth’s stupidity, and it almost took Charon's leg.

She wasn’t thinking much, wasn’t talking much either, at least not yet. The Beth he met in the Underworld four months ago differed completely from this one. That one was annoying, talked too much and too fast. This one was dead, or as good as.

Two weeks ago, the Enclave infiltrated the Jefferson Memorial and took over Project purity, and both sides suffered for nothing. If Charon hadn’t been there, Beth would’ve pounded on the bulletproof glass, screaming at her dad’s body until the Enclave killed her too. 

Charon didn’t ask her to talk about it, not even when they escaped with the remaining Purity members to take refuge at the Pentagon. She didn’t eat her rations or chew any bubblegum. She sat alone, listening to her father’s research holotapes over and over again, ignoring him and everyone else. 

She talked about her dad a lot, maybe too much for someone trying to act tough, but nothing since then.

Beth didn’t give a shit about his contract. She’d burn it up if he’d let her, he knew that. So after he almost lost his leg in Minefield, and that crazy-ass sniper shot her pinky clean off—when she told him he could leave whenever the fuck he wanted—he believed her, which is why he didn’t go.

Took them ten minutes to find her finger, and another hour for Doctor Church to sew it back on. He charged extra for the Med-X and for “wasting his time”. Charon got Beth out of there before she told him to shove a syringe up his ass. She didn’t try sleeping it off either, and went straight to Craterside Supply, leaving him a dozen steps behind her.

Charon wasn’t anyone’s errand boy, but when Beth and Moria were hard at dissecting two landmines they got from Minefield, he stood quietly in the corner. She looked at him once, but only to see if he was still staring at her.

Her intrusiveness and Moria’s air-rending voice got to him after a while. He went to The Brass Lantern to get Beth some dinner. He knew she realized he left, he just wondered if she cared.

The heavy air gave him chest pains and a headache. Maybe he needed to rest, but if Beth wouldn’t, then he couldn’t. Those were the rules. He kept walking, and when he got high enough, he saw Beth watching him over the rails, leaning on them like she didn’t care if they broke and sent her 20-feet down. 

It took longer to get up the ramps than it should’ve. If his hands weren’t full, he could’ve held the railing. Beth glanced at him, acknowledging his presence.

“Done with Moria?” he asked, leaning to his right.   
  
“For now.” She stared at her Pipboy, Charon knew she was still on her notes, ready to play her dad’s holotapes whenever she was alone. “She gave me a new job.”

She only looked at him for a second to know what he was thinking. “Nothing like that, I’m not making you walk anywhere yet.”

“Stop worrying about me.” He didn’t mean for it to come out like that, but Beth didn’t bother herself and stared over the edge. He handed her the bowl, cold on top but steaming inside. “Jenny said to mix the rat in since they ran out of salt.”  
  
“Thanks.” Beth grabbed it bottom first. “I’m not supposed to take those antibiotics on an empty stomach.” She mixed them together and took a bite. Charon stayed quiet, watching her chew and swallow. “Did you get anything?”

“Not hungry.” It wasn’t the first time he’d said that today, but she didn’t bat an eye. “You should go home and rest.”

“I can’t sleep.” She took another bite, eyes flickering down at the pipes. Something crossed over her face, the same look she’d had for weeks. “You can go, I still got a few things to clear up.”

“As you command.” He straightened up and turned to leave, it was easier to walk without junk in his hands. When he reached the second platform past the incline, he stopped and turned around. “What job did Moria give you?” 

He never cared to ask, but something didn’t feel right. Beth stirred the fork through the noodles. “Nothing big. Next time I get hurt, like broken bones or something extreme, she wants me to come in to run tests.” 

She said it so relaxed and without a twinge of suspicion that Charon should’ve let it go. It was stupid to ask her in the first place, but she stared at the ground with dead focused eyes. She hadn’t stopped stirring her fork through the noodles, and the steam lessened. 

“You’re not gonna jump.” A demand. He didn’t even know where it came from.

She blinked, and a chunk of meat fell out of her bowl. She scoffed like it was the most ridiculous thing she’d heard that night. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

“I don’t believe you.” Charon didn’t move, and Beth didn’t look at him. “Is this why you’ve been helping Moria? And donating to the Church of Atom?”

“I can’t be a good person anymore?” Her forehead wrinkled in frustration. She set the bowl of noodles on the ground by the rails.

“Not like that.” He took one step forward, so he didn’t have to talk as loud. “You’re getting rid of everything you have. That’s not being good, that’s leaving a will.”

“What I do is none of your fucking business,” She spat. “I told you to go whenever you want. I don’t want your fucking contract.”

The second step he took was out of offense. “You’re my employer until you die or sell the contract.”

“Then I hope you poisoned these fucking noodles,” She huffed. “Just go back to the house. I'll be there soon.” She brushed the hair from her face and stared back at the ground like it was nothing.

“Will you?” It was getting harder to walk away. “Or are you gonna hop the rails and try to break your neck?”

“I won’t.”

“Make me believe you.”

Beth wrapped her hands around the railing, her nails biting in the cold. She contemplated whether it was worth it, then sighed “My dad told me to finish what he started. We still need the G.E.C.K, and I can’t get it if I’m dead. ” She grabbed the bowl and walked to him. Charon knew he was pissing her off. “You saw what he did. If he thinks all this is to die for, then I’ll finish it for him. Even if I have to burn the Enclave to the ground.”

“Where are you going?” He asked when she shoved past him.

“On a walk.” She looked at him. “Go home, Charon.”

Beth turned around, stuffing a mouthful of noodles in her mouth, and left. He watched her until she walked past the Brass Lantern, and the doors opened. Orange light flooded through the doors where people talked and laughed. People walked out, but when the door closed, Beth was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment and a kudo to tell me what you think!  
For anyone who has read my "It's Just Not Our Time" series, I have not given up on it! I'm just very slow, haha, sorry!


End file.
